The central barrier to home

care is, according to family members, the preference of patients to be cared for by family members. Both professionals and family members indicate that the situation of the family is relevant. But while professionals indicate that they sometimes feel obstructed by, for instance, the cultural habits of the see more Turkish and Moroccan families and the less openly expressed personal preferences, family members emphasize Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical that professionals should take such features into account. In addition, both professionals and family members agree that the information about and performance of the home care organizations are relevant factors. Family members indicated that proper information about the facilities of home care and good previous experiences with home care are major factors [16]. As for many Turkish and Moroccan families the GP is the principal source of information about home care, his referring performance can be crucial. But we just discovered in this study that GPs sometimes hesitate to refer to home care and that they agree significantly

less than nurses Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with statements that Turkish and Moroccan terminally ill patients are in great need of information, nursing and coaching given by home care organizations. One question to be raised is whether these findings are typical for the use and access of home care by terminally ill Turkish and Moroccan patients? Our findings correspond with the results Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of studies on the care for and needs of chronically ill elderly (not particularly in the terminal phase) with a Turkish background [21-23]. These studies also point in the direction that Turkish families want to take full responsibility Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for the care of their patient, and that professional home care is seldom used. These studies also found that particularly daughters assume more and more responsibility for the ill relative, and that bedridden elderly

often suffer because of the lack of professional care. Another question to be raised is whether it is justified that we Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical studied the Turkish and Moroccan target groups jointly. We recognize that there are important cultural ADAMTS5 differences between the groups of Turkish and Moroccan migrants and their families, e.g. related to their different socio-geographical roots and different languages. However, we considered it worthwhile to include both groups in our study, because both groups have some relevant common features: in the Netherlands they have a largely comparable immigration history, they are Muslims in a Christian society, they often have close family and community relations, their socioeconomic situation is not favorable and their self reported health status is often poor [11,12]. On the basis of our previous study among relatives, we had the impression that more Turkish informal carers than Moroccans had to combine their caring for the terminally ill patient with other duties like childrearing, and a formal job.